Anti-nightmare Med That Doesnt Drop Blood Pressure?

[lostforgottensoul]

This isnt a big deal but im seeing a member(s) speaking about an anti-nightmare med (had never heard of that) but the one ive seen posted here is a blood pressure med & my bood pressure is on the low side due to my pain meds/morphine pump & its actually getting lower to the point that my dr doesnt want to do any increasing of dosage morphine pump is putting into my spinal cord (we are currently tiering the pump up & my oral/patch meds down) so i cant lower my blood pressure any more, IF the dr will give it to me at all.

But nightmares are at an all time high. I have to take my tizandine (muscle relaxer) & a xanax (sometimes 2 if my mind doesnt stop racing for hrs) to get to sleep in the first place. I cant take sleeping meds, i have a hard enough time trying to wake up. I do have something i do that helps me feel safe at night so that i can go to sleep that ive spoken about before but dont wanna get into that now. Its not bad, just weird.

Anyway, ive tried lucid dreaming and i cant seem to do that, i wake up running & run into a wall; fighting the air; accidently hitting someone trying to wake me; ive even hurt myself down there in my sleep with my fingernails and woke up with blood all over my hands.

I think the biggest issue, for me, isnt the lack of sleep it self; as i can wake up 20 times a night & cant seem feel safe enough to go back to sleep; its the excessive urge that i have to self do a ritual then punish & that is what oddly enough makes me feel safe & i can go back to sleep...and that isnt good.

I share all of this w/ my therapist; i dont think theres anything he doesnt know at this point; and its why my xanax was increased, for night.

But whom a call my therapist is a LMHC, though he knows a TON about medications, he cant prescibe them & my psychristrist and i, though everything is in my file (w/o detials per my therapist, if never seen my file) her & i dont speak about stuff so then i would have to re-hash everything to 1) a woman, women terrify me and 2) someone i havent gained trust with. There is now a male psychitrist in their group & ive been thinking of switching to him. Was going to if she didnt increase my xanax as i was on the brink of loosing my job & jump through every anti-depressant & abilify (crap) hoop that she wanted me to be on & i was done being an anti depressant geniua pig & it not working.

Anyway, is the only medication that helps to decrease nightmares or your brain's reaction to them, also a blood pressure med? Is there anything i can bring to my therapist then to my psychristrist if my therapist agrees that wont lower my blood pressure? I find it weird that if there was one that could help at least me hurting myself in my sleep and my therapist not mention it? He seems to be the chemicals in the brain expert in my opinion.

Like the new bipolar depression med Latuda due to my mental state making me overly super exhausted where i couldnt awake myself up w/o handfuls of caffee pills; but my anxiety still being there running rapid, i stopped my xanax for a few months (bad idea) but it made me more tired. He said, Latuda would help with both, what he calls "tired and wired" but my paychitrist said "you dont have bipolar"...i know that, have you read my file??

That now comes and goes but when its here i just have to bull my way through it and just push myself.

Anyway, sorry to ramble. I know, im a hot mess! Any ideas?

 

[Justmehere]

I have low blood pressure problems but I do take Prazosin (which is the blood pressure med I think you are talking about that you want to avoid) and Vistaril (which is a potent antihistamine), and Vistaril helps my nightmares quite a bit.

Your doc is right about not increasing the morphine for more reasons than even he might know, not being a sleep medicine doc. Morphine can actually cause or worsen insomina and make nightmares a lot more vivid and disturbing. It's a confusing thing, because the pain can cause insomnia too, but morphine fueled sleep problems are more like what you describe - especially the part about the nightmares. "Morphine dreams" are a common thing, and often people take more morphine thinking it will help, only it gets worse.

 

[ShodokanJenn]

My psychiatrist had me try cyproheptadine for nightmares. It supposedly works pretty well. It made me unable to sleep, but when I looked it up, one of its indications is PTSD related nightmares. It is an antihistamine so it shouldn't lower blood pressure.

 

[joeylittle]

Latuda has multiple dosing levels now - was just cleared for depression (at a different dose than the bipolar one). It didn't help me much, but some people have really liked it.

The reason blood pressure meds work on nightmares has to do with which cycle of sleep you will 'settle' in, as a result of your blood pressure being lowered. The dosing is less than when it is used as a blood pressure med, so it still could maybe be worth asking about.

This is also why cannabis works on nightmares - though, it does it by keeping you from sleeping deeply.

I know you've dealt with addiction issues - the synthetic cannabinoid, nabilone, doesn't get you high and had some success with lessening or preventing nightmares. So that could be worth a shot.

As I understand it, sleep-wise the goal is to either be very deeply asleep, so you don't get jostled out of it by dreaming, or more lightly asleep, so you don't spend much time in the dream-state.

Seroquel can sometimes be such a strong sedative that it can help. It helped me for awhile. But it has other problems.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

"Morphine dreams" are a common thing, and often people take more morphine thinking it will help, only it gets worse.

Really? Never heard of morphine dreams before. Ive been on a fentyal patch & morphine sulfate for yrs now; taking me off the oxy (crap should be banned off the planet!) roller coaster ride i was on for.a year or so after my accident.

Morphine is all thats in the pump for now; for the trial for the pump you try 1st day morphine (best), dilaudid (worst), & liquid fentyal (ok but morphine was better) and then they start the pump on the best of the 3. I dont take another morphine sulfate pill unless the reason i canr sleep is pain and even then try not to.

Unsure if i even want to bring up to switch the pump from morphine to fentyal...he'll want to know why and im not trying to go in all that w/ my pain dr.

I'll research those two. Thank you!

 

[lostforgottensoul]

I know you've dealt with addiction issues - the synthetic cannabinoid, nabilone, doesn't get you high and had some success with lessening or preventing nightmares. So that could be worth a shot.

Ah, i dont worry about weed...its just isnt legal for medical use in my State yet. Needed a 60% majority vote & got i believe 58%.

I believe cannbis oil makes your urine hot for weed and I get drug tested at my pain dr every 3 months (i smoked between months & off for a month for a bit) but got popped at work for a drug test after i had a seizure (that no dr knows why) and now popped whenever or id be all about smoking weed, at least to get me to sleep.

The country is watching CO whom made it legal for receational use. The crime there has increaaed...wont help when my State brings it back up which im hearing is soon.

Cali has had medical use legal forever, not sure why it just wont pass federally and be done with it!

Seroquel can sometimes be such a strong sedative that it can help. It helped me for awhile. But it has other problems.

What other issues? Isnt that an anti depressant? I dont care if im on an anti depressant, as long as it works and doesnt make me more tired, what most do including abilify (which i hated!).

The reason blood pressure meds work on nightmares has to do with which cycle of sleep you will 'settle' in, as a result of your blood pressure being lowered. The dosing is less than when it is used as a blood pressure med, so it still could maybe be worth asking about.

Def worth asking about. Im to the point (cause my pain dr takes vitials at every appmt) that im downing water, just a bit or slightly dehydrated and my blood pressure is lower than he likes..

My MD wanted me to have at home sleep studies. Im like totally convinced i have narcolepsy; though not diagnoaed. Im asleep for a second & im dreaming...you're not supposed to dream til you get to REM which isnt for a while (reaearched narcolepsy but forgot the exact amount of time but i think its 30 mins?) Its just entering REM too early but has no cure, just more medicatations. I hate pills!

I havent done the sleep studies. More cuz just have too many drs, too many tests, not enough time. Im supposed to have 2 of the biggest of the 4 nodules of my tyroid biopsied too. Im on tyroid meds & its leveled off fine now.

I dunno but hurting yourself in your sleep is a bit scary.

 

[Virtues]

I also suffer from hypotension so I am limited to the meds I can take for nightmares. I have been on Vistaril and Cyproheptadine and neither seemed to help with nightmares at all. I am on Lunesta to help me sleep which works great but it also gives me very vivid dreams which is the down side. I will be interested to see what others have come up with. I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

My psychiatrist had me try cyproheptadine for nightmares. It supposedly works pretty well. It made me unable to sleep, but when I looked it up, one of its indications is PTSD related nightmares. It is an antihistamine so it shouldn't lower blood pressure.

I'll look at that. Im hoping to create a list of a few that he can go over w/ me? Nighrmares suck but they wont kill me, its just i dont want to be hurting myself more than i do awake. Running into walls sucks too!

 

[hodge]

Latuda has multiple dosing levels now - was just cleared for depression (at a different dose than the...

Oh, wow, Joey!! Latuda has now been approved for depression? Yaay!! That really helped my sleep. I can't wait to see my psych now! He told me that was in the works. I'm so glad it's approved now. I just hope I can afford the copay.

LFS, I enter REM sleep very quickly very often as well. My psych says it's because I'm so sleep deprived, the normal cycle doesn't happen. We need REM so badly that, I guess, if our brain learns it won't get it after 1-2 hours, it'll start almost right away.

I also have low blood pressure, but I can take a blood pressure medicine for nightmares, Clonidine. But then I don't have the other situations you have. I just have to move around before I get out of bed, so I don't faint. I'd trust your doc.

I did have a sleep study to see if I had apnea. Nope. Just PTSD. It might be worth doing one, though.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

I will be interested to see what others have come up with. I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem.

I dont suffer from hypotension, my blood pressure has always been great, so much so that i could predict the numbers and be correct w/ in 10 points. Im sure the recent decline in my blood pressure has to do w/ the pain pump, it was put in 11/11; and im in a hurry to get the damn thing leveled off so i can be be off my meds.

I was also born w/ eccuma and its run wild for a while now and nothing helps it. I havent been to a dermotlogist simply b/c there arent enough hrs in a week to go to all the drs im supposed to, keep my therapist ar once a week, and work. My skin seems to be puking my fentyal patch back at me lol. Trying to keep it on me is an issue by itself but w/ dry/red/scally yucky skin its impossible; and if i put it on the dry skin it doesnt work anyway...

Though its supposed to be on your upper body i moved it to my formarm til my skin got bad there...its following the patch & very annoying!

 

[hodge]

Yuck, LFS. I'm so sorry.

 

[Justmehere]

Unsure if i even want to bring up to switch the pump from morphine to fentyal...he'll want to know why and im not trying to go in all that w/ my pain dr.

Fentyal is actually a little more notorious for causing nightmares - so you may want to mention the nightmares before you ask the doc about switching pain meds. I know you are reluctant to be more forthcoming with the doc about any emotional struggle, but I encourage you to perhaps consider mentioning to him about his thoughts on the role the meds might play in the nightmares the next time you go in to see him and if there are changes in dosing or type of meds that could help. It happens quite a bit with some pain meds, and a good doctor pain doc would not be surprised to find out someone had nightmares.

It sounds like you are wisely trying to avoid using the pain meds to deal with the nightmares already.

Even if you had no pain meds, you may likely still have terrible nightmares because you still have PTSD. It makes sense to try another med to control the nightmares before changing any pain control meds around.

I have also tried Trazadone for sleep. It's an antidepressant, but makes people so sleepy they really use it mostly for sleep now. It is ironically known for causing really graphic dreams for some people.

Everyone can respond very differently to different meds. I hope you find something that works well for you and get some good sleep soon!